In semiconductor technologies, backside-illuminated sensors are used for sensing a volume of exposed light projected towards the backside surface of a substrate. The backside-illuminated sensors can be formed on the front side of the substrate and light projected towards the backside of the substrate can reach the sensors. However, annealing processes used to fabricate the backside-illuminated sensors can result in surface roughness that can effect the light photo response of the backside-illuminated sensors. Improvements in backside illuminated sensors and/or the methods of fabricating backside illuminated sensors are desired.